A dog enters the track during the Women's Team Sprint Free qualification of the Cross-Country Skiing competitions

A dog on the course at the 2026 Winter Olympics.Credit : HANNIBAL HANSCHKE/EPA/Shutterstock

 

Did Air Bud’s husky brother make it to the Olympics?

It sure looked that way during the women’s cross-country team sprint qualifying race on Wednesday, Feb. 18, when a dog suddenly crashed the course as the 2026 Winter Olympians were finishing.

As members of Team Croatia and Team Australia crossed the finish line, a dog appeared, first looking at the cameras before realizing there were athletes on skis to chase.

“Anybody lost their dog?” the on-course announcers joked, after saying, “it’s a fairly nice mutt there, not hindering anybody’s progress. One of those moments you have to laugh about.”

A dog on the tracks in the women's free technique team sprint cross-country skiing qualification

A dog on the course at the 2026 Winter Olympics. MAXIM THORE/BILDBYRÅN/Shutterstock

“But you know, better it happened now than during the group sprints, let’s put it that way,” they added.

After the racers slid to the ground in exhaustion, the dog went around to give them a sniff before heading off to the post-finish area with the other athletes and getting some good pets and belly rubs from the Olympics volunteers.

Omega, the official timing sponsor of the Milan Cortina Games, even gave the dog its own photo-finish moment when it was automatically recorded by OMEGA’s Scan’O’Vision ULTIMATE photofinish camera.

Omega Photo Finish dog crossing finish line in the women's free technique team sprint cross-country skiing qualification

The dog crosses the finish line.2026 Omega SA.

Before the dog decided to join the race, Sweden’s team of Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist finished first in the qualifying round with a time of 6:29.94. Team USA’s Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern earned a seventh place finish, 19.49 behind the leaders.

In the final round two hours later, Sweden held on for gold, as Switzerland and Germany took silver and bronze, respectively. Diggins and Kern improved to a fifth place finish.

Source: https://people.com/dog-crashes-2026-winter-olympics-cross-country-race-11908483